When I went outside this morning to check the mousetraps (both traps were sprung, but the plants they were protecting are still standing), I noticed that something has been eating the leaves of my hardy hibiscus.
This is not acceptable.
It looks like there might be more that one kind of bug munching on the leaves, or else the different-looking things are various stages of the same bug.
While I was near the garden, I laid down a bunch of cardboard between the cucumber hills to help keep down weeds and grass. I laid metal fence posts on the cardboard to keep it in place.
The tomatoes are doing very well! There are a good many green tomatoes on the vines. I had my battery-operated toothbrush in my apron pocket, and I buzzed every bloom on every plant, as I have been doing every time I go to the garden. This may actually be working to increase fruit yield!
Hardly any of the new green beans have sprouted. I just can't figure this out, unless something is digging up the seeds. When I take the sprayer back to the shed, I'm going to plant more seeds in the skips, and then I'm going to spray the plants that did sprout and the dirt between them, hoping to discourage any critter that might be digging up the seeds.
Addendum:
I planted the green bean skips again. The garden soil is pretty wet, and I just punched the seeds in the dirt and smeared a little mud over them.
The beans that had already sprouted are about as bug-eaten as the hibiscus. (The oldest ones have reached up and grabbed hold of the fence.) Since I'd mixed up 2 gallons of bug spray, I sprayed the beans and the ground where I'd planted the seeds.
After that, I sprayed the squash and the tomatoes. They didn't look eaten, but neither did the hibiscus until yesterday.
At my urging, The Husband strapped the trail cam to the Wrangler hitch, and he's set it on "video," because I'd like to see the critter's reaction when the trap snaps. ;)
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